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Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Emotional Icon

A compliment coming your way...you so want to acknowledge it, yet don't want to really fall for it, a smiley or emoticon in return would just do the right trick. It is simple and safe. Saves all the trouble of having to put together the right words and yet being judged for the way you speak.

Emoticons have invariably become a way of communicating. An animated smiley that just new how to smile ; to begin with : Nothing, but a plain wide smile, which still is pleasing to the eye and mind. Since then, the way smileys have evolved and influenced our conversations is a gratifying experience.

The thumbs up sign is a classic example of a life saver- almost always. When you don't really desire to continue with the length of the conversation- The thumbs up emoticon pops out as an emphatic symbol of agreement... The veritable 'y' in braces (like this- (y)) instantly sticks out in the timelines and windows of Facebook; so much so that you sometimes just wish that you could extend the same to Microsoft Outlook too; just when you are in conversation with your bosses or colleagues!

A birthday or an anniversary wish for that matter- what would otherwise look plain and undressed- when peppered with some flowers, party hats and balloons...makes the wish look animated and zestful. With the world of social media witnessing convenient entrants by the hour, EMOTICON, derived from the portmanteau words of English- emotion+icon, is certainly a virtual blessing!

From symbols that express love, anger, dismay, good luck, to symbols that represent coffee, flowers, fruits, sandwiches, virtually just about everything that is part of verbal communication gets covered without a single word being uttered! Whoa..! Just a variation of sign language this looks like...! What's more, we have more stickers on Facebook that are much quirkier than their watsap counterparts. The recent Chumbak and kitten cartoons make for some interesting conversations with these characters popping out with a cute animation!

Come to think of it, we've actually been innocuously using these symbols for most part of our lives. Remember those cartoony images that come to you in the form of stickers? Haven't we done a whole lot of our letter writing using these stickers?! And of course a host of designs that come as freebies with biscuits, energy drinks, bubble gums and what not! Especially, back in school days, when you'd want to impress that secret pen friend of yours... we would have the best of stickers saved up for that precious, handwritten letter!

It is amazing the way communication goes through so much transformation- in every sense and now, even the manner in which one emotes! There is so much accentuation with these little punctuation marks and alphabets- ; , : ) :P ... Perhaps, this is what I'd call the rich text!!